Eight battles are scheduled for the event, featuring MCs from the Fresno and San Francisco Bay Area, as well as the Peninsula.

The main event pits Pacific Grove rapper Maniacal against Override, who hails from the Fresno area.

Young Sinister of Pacific Grove faces off against Inovate of Clovis. Miggi of Marina battles Chewbaccs of Seaside. Oakland rapper Ten J goes head to head with Fresno rapper Decade. And Stikk Figga of Tracy will battle Esem of Fresno.

Keegan "Kali" Russell and Matt "Draztik Matter" Rockwell are in charge of the league.

The two 20-year-old Seaside residents took over the league, which began in March 2012, after the founder left to focus on school.

Central Coast Chamber consists of about 12 battle rappers right now, Russell said. Several are in high school, with the youngest only 14.

"(Founder Uziel Diaz) started it up along the lines of trying to get something started for the Central Coast, some sort of music or hip-hop-related unity," Russell said. "There's a lot of people around here who rap and stuff, and there's nobody who wants to work together to do anything with it. He wanted to get something going and he's a fan of battle rap as well, so that was a good way to get a lot of people involved."

The art of battle rap is self-explanatory — rappers square off against one another trying to out-rhyme, out-smart and out-perform an opponent. For the Central Coast Chamber event, a panel of three judges will determine a winner.

The form goes back to the early days of hip-hop culture.

In the late-'70s/early '80s, old school pioneers The Cold Crush Brothers battled The Fantastic Five in one of the first popular New York City battles.

The current battle leagues are an outgrowth of the rap battle resurgence in the past decade, fueled early on by the Jay-Z/Nas beef and Eminem's landmark film "8 Mile."

Locally, Monterey native Pete Morris, better known as The Saurus, has emerged as one of the most respected battle rappers in the world. He is a two-time champion in the Scribble Jam and World Rap Championship battle events, two of the most prestigious competitions on the battle circuit.

Russell and Rockwell look to The Saurus, as well as battle leagues like Grind Time, Kind of the Dot and Ultimate Rap League (URL) as models.

Central Coast Chamber has hosted four major events in less than a year. Russell believes the next one could be its biggest yet.

The Fresno caravan consists of rappers from that region's battle league, Power and Respect.

Rockwell said the battle format requires juggling several factors at once.

"You have to have jokes and control the crowd and know what works (for crowd response). Sometimes you don't know what works and you just gotta keep going," said Rockwell, who has been rapping for about eight years. "I feel people don't know what to do when they're under pressure sometimes. I feel this is a good thing to learn if you want to be an MC."

"You can't get nervous in a battle. It shows and everyone can see it," said Russell, who battled in the first two events. "When I went out there, I knew I was nervous. I get out there and I'm just freaking out. 'Why am I doing this?' The pressure is on. You can't just 'Eeehhhh, no. I'm good.'"